Riddle Me This
by TheGirlWhoRemembers
Summary: "Jack trusts her." "He trusted Thornton too." Afterwards, Mac, Riley, Bozer and Matty have a family meeting as they try to solve a potentially deadly riddle, and don't like the potential answer. Tag to 3.16, Lidar and Rogues and Duty.


AN: Spoilers for 3.16, Lidar + Rogues + Duty.

* * *

**MATTY'S RESIDENCE**

**SOMEWHERE IN LA**

**(THE LOCATION WAS CLASSIFIED)**

**(EMPHASIS ON WAS)**

**(HENCE – FAMILY MEETING)**

* * *

Riley stared at her computer screen in frustration, alternating between typing rapidly and slumping back in her seat.

Mac paced along Matty's living room, muttering to himself, occasionally running a hand through his now-very-mussed hair, and mutilating paperclips from a box that Matty had produced from somewhere.

Meanwhile, Bozer and Matty sat in armchairs opposite each other, Bozer watching his friends with clear concern, Matty seemingly preoccupied.

(She _was _responsible for an entire extremely covert agency that had just been terribly compromised, after all.)

Eventually, as the little pile of re-shaped paperclips built up on the edge of the coffee table, Bozer broke the silence, putting his hands up.

'Okay, guess I gotta be the one to say it…_again_…but less than a week ago, all our personal info got dumped on a bad guy forum, and one week ago, Ms Desi Nguyen joined the Phoenix.' Bozer looked around, at Riley, who had stopped typing, at Mac, whose hands were re-shaping a paperclip even more quickly, and at Matty, who looked much more _present. _He held his hands up higher. 'Hey, I didn't say anything we weren't all thinking!'

There was silence for a beat.

(Riley let her hands fall from her keyboard, thinking about the look on Desi's face, the sound of her voice and that little blink-and-you'll-miss-it catch, when she'd talked about the Afghani roofer who loved chocolate and his family, the softness there that even though she'd only known Desi for a week, she knew was rare for the other woman.)

(Mac stared down at the paperclip in his hands, which was now shaped like one of the LIDAR system's mirrors. He really had thought she hadn't cared, just thought she'd needed to give him a kick up the ass to get his head back into the game – which _probably_ had been unnecessary; he was, even if he said so himself, really good at compartmentalizing, and it wasn't his first rodeo by a long shot, then again…it'd been a dark rabbit hole staring back at him – but she had.)

(At least, he _thought_ she had, said an insidious little voice in his head, the one that, he was a little ashamed to admit, even to himself, had once doubted all the current members of his family - and several of the past ones – except Jack and Bozer.)

Matty just nodded seriously, pursing her lips a little.

'It's a possibility, Bozer.'

Mac swallowed, and tossed down yet another paperclip, this one shaped like a phoenix.

'The Phoenix network wasn't compromised. Our personal details are highly, highly classified and compartmentalized.' He swallowed again. 'The most likely explanation is that we have a mole.'

He left the _again _unsaid.

Matty nodded in agreement with the blonde, and looked all three of the young agents dead in the eye in turn.

'Which means we don't know who we can trust.' Implicit in that was the fact that she trusted them, absolutely. She knew, completely, without the slightest hint of doubt, that none of these three were the mole. (There would have been a fourth, and a fifth. Thanks to Kovac and Murdoc, the number of agents that she would never, ever doubt had been reduced.) 'We're going to have to sweep the entire Phoenix, leave no stone unturned, but the timing puts Desi under suspicion.'

Riley took a deep breath, looking up at the others.

'Jack trusts her.'

That, they all knew, counted for something. In fact, it counted for a lot.

They all trusted Jack. Absolutely, certainly, without even a hint of doubt.

(That insidious little voice in Mac's brain – the manifestation of his massive intellect which considered every single possible possibility – had never, ever, ever doubted Jack and never, ever, ever would, after all.)

Mac sighed and ran a hand through his hair, swallowing before speaking.

'He trusted Thornton too.'

Jack had trusted Thornton a lot, actually. Just like Mac had.

He sighed again, pushing away those thoughts very firmly. That betrayal still stung and probably always would. Besides, that'd been a generally terrible period of his life.

And now was a terrible time to think about it. Even worse than usual.

Riley and Bozer swallowed too and nodded. That hadn't been a very good period in their lives either.

(It was hard to reconcile the traitor who'd put them all in danger with the woman who'd taught her how to fight, or the woman who'd created a job for him, just for Mac's sake, or the woman who'd bought Mac paperclips for Christmas like they all had, to his delight, or the woman who'd hugged them all and even, Riley had noticed, kissed Jack rather sweetly on the cheek.)

(The bad guys you never knew were a lot easier to deal with.)

Matty spoke up, her voice firm, decisive, and reassuring at the same time.

'We have to keep open minds. We have to search, thoroughly, and most importantly, we need to make sure that this mole _doesn't know we're onto them_.'

She'd taken precautions, taking more and more as they'd gotten closer to finding out just how Riley had been SWAT-ted.

Only the four people in this room knew that they'd found that dark web forum.

Mac, Bozer and Riley all nodded in agreement.

The sombre mood was broken by a Wookie cry emanating from Riley's phone. It made her smile, soft and fond, automatically, and she held it up to show a picture of Jack before answering. Mac paced over to lean against the back of her armchair, while Bozer and Matty each perched on an arm.

Jack's face popped up on screen, and he grinned at them all.

'Hey, guys.' They all waved back at him. 'How was the old man's first day at his new job, Riles?'

Riley took a deep breath, raising her shoulders, and tilted her head a little to the side, making _that _face.

'Uh…it didn't go so well. He's looking for a new new job.'

'They catch him out on the spreadsheet thing?'

Riley exchanged a glance with Matty.

'Not exactly, Jack.'

'It's a long story.'

Jack would get it. He knew there were things they couldn't tell him anymore, now that he wasn't at the Phoenix.

He nodded in acceptance, something a little sad in the motion. Riley gestured at Jack with a hand.

'What happened to your face?'

Mac, behind her, smirked teasingly (not entirely convincingly), reaching to bring that lightness and levity into the conversation. Trying to do that not-so-little something that Jack had always been oh-so-good at.

(He was nowhere near as good at it, but he was trying. He knew full well that they needed it.)

(_He _needed it. It kept him out of the darker rabbit holes in his mind.)

'It's even uglier than usual.'

Jack looked pretty bruised and battered. There was a small cut above his eyebrow, a bruise on his cheek, and what looked to be a healing shiner.

'Ran into a tree.'

Obviously, that wasn't the truth either, but Jack couldn't tell them exactly what (or rather, whom) he'd run into, of course.

Bozer rubbed his hands together and grinned.

'You give that tree the Jack Dalton special?'

Jack grinned back.

'You betcha, Boze. Tree didn't know what hit him.' He pointed seriously at the younger man. 'Hope you been practicing that special, man! Didn't teach it to you for nothing!'

Bozer nodded, holding his fists up.

'Every day.'

It was Mac's turn to grin, as he reached out and bumped his fist to his best friend's.

'Boze works on it every morning, just like clockwork.' That teasing smirk was back, this time, more convincing. 'I'm pretty sure _Eye of the Tiger_ is permanently wired into my neural network now.'

It was Riley's turn to smirk.

'Better that than the panpipes.'

Bozer looked affronted.

'Hey, that digeridoo solo is_ epic_!'

Unseen by the three younger agents as they bickered about one another's music choices, Matty and Jack exchanged a fond little smile.

There was, however, something a touch wistful, a touch sad, in Jack's expression.

God, he missed these kids.

* * *

Later, Matty leaned against the doorway that led from her living room into the kitchen/dining area. Bozer had taken over her kitchen, insisting that a mole hunt on an empty stomach was a bad idea, and roped Mac in as his assistant. Riley sat at the table, a bag of pretzels in front of her, courtesy of Bozer, typing away as she got the hunt started.

Matilda Webber was not a person inclined to wish.

She was a pragmatist. You had what you had to work with. Your life was the way it was. Didn't like it? Tough luck. Suck it up, put on your big boy or girl pants, and get on with the job.

You didn't get to her position and last so long in the spy game otherwise.

But sometimes, she really, really did wish.

(She _was_ human, after all.)

She'd wished that she'd never encouraged Ethan to take that mission. She'd wished that he'd pushed back harder.

She'd wished that she hadn't had to tell Jill's parents that their daughter, their brilliant, kind, brave daughter, was gone.

She'd wished that she'd nudged and pushed and pulled Jim earlier, forced his hand sooner.

She wished that Tiberius Kovac had stayed down.

Matty straightened up, feeling the weight of two heavy promises on her shoulders.

(Ones that she'd been happy to make, happy to carry, but heavy burdens nonetheless.)

'_I promise, Jack.'_

'_Everything I can. You have my word.'_

* * *

AN: Because Jack content is now my personal mission? Also because I feel like someone has to raise the fact that the timing of Desi's joining the Phoenix and what surely has to be a mole of some kind appearing is suspicious…

Thoughts on the ep: I enjoyed that one, it was, again, a very _MacGyver _mission, complete with Mac feeling guilty and blaming himself. I think they did a reasonably good – if not characteristically rather heavy-handed (like Bozer, this show doesn't really do subtle, I think!) – job of depicting Mac and Desi feeling each other out and working out how to work together. I think they finished the mission a little closer, and a little more in-sync and with a better understanding of how the other operates and a little more faith in each other. Desi is definitely a proponent of 'tough love', and remains the cool, blunt, got-a-really-good-sense-of-priorities-and-a-lot-of-snark woman established in the last ep. I do think it's important Mac has a partner who keeps him out of his own head when he needs it – I reckon Jack used to do it with humour and goofiness and complaints, to keep Mac 'with him' and bickering instead of running down the rabbit hole. Desi's approach seems very blunt and to the point – pretty much telling him just to get out of there – but so far, it seems to work. I also do like the fact that they gave her and Bozer a scene at the start and the end; she got scenes with the rest of the core cast last ep, so it does make sense she and Bozer had one in this. It was fun, silly and absurd (and Sparky was in it!), and you do know how I love my _MacGyver _silliness…

It was also nice to see Elwood trying to become a better man and turning over a new leaf (gotta admit, pretty much solely for Riley's sake – I'm not his biggest fan, but I want Riley to be happy!), and the scenes with him and Riley, plus that one with him and Matty…though I admittedly miss dad!Jack.

In terms of the team's classified personal info being made public – do I think Desi is a mole? Absolutely not. (It makes no sense, since they'd have to then get another replacement for Jack.) Is it, in my opinion, a potential 'hedging-their-bets' exit strategy for her character, in case she's poorly received or George Eads for some reason decides to come back? Possibly, though I hope that they don't use it as such. (I just feel that 'oops, sorry, she's actually a bad guy' would really cheapen whatever bond and past and debt she and Jack have, as well as make Jack look like an idiot, and cheapen the relationships she's clearly forming with the team.)

As for what I think is the cause of the leak, here's some theories:

Leanna is the mole. (Again, hope not, for similar reasons as with Desi.) This could be an exit strategy for her character – she hasn't been given much development this season, nor has she appeared much or actually done that much, I think, particularly in her most recent appearance in 3.15, K9 + Smugglers + New Recruit. I believe the actress has another role pending or something? (She filmed a pilot in New Zealand, I think?)

It has to do with Jonah Walsh, somehow. He's compromised the Phoenix network before. He's got lots of inside info on how such an organization runs. He can probably also get into Oversight's head, which has to count for something.


End file.
